Engraved Photo Frame as Birthday Gift

Happy birthday to you
Squashed tomatoes and stew
Bread and butter in the gutter
Happy birthday to you.

That’s the email I sent to Mr. K the day after his birthday, which I have now engraved onto one of our personalised photo frames.

Mr. K, is what I call a minimalist as a communicator, always replying by just one or two words when sending a text message, and sometimes replying with just two letters, and to add to that frustration he doesn’t always reply to messages you send him which is another factor to get ones stress temperature to rise, and I say this with a smile. Over time I have come to realise that it’s nothing personal it’s just the way he communicates.

I am sure that I am not the only person experiencing this and that there are thousands of other people like Mr. K out there, and people like me who think that (I should be a code-breaker or have some gadget with me so I can decipher what he is saying.)

Maybe I should send him one of our personalised frames and just engrave it with the words “guess what I am thinking” ha ha.

I am involved in the business of personalised engraved photo frames; we at Memento Frames engrave glass photo frames. On several occasions the messages we engrave on our frames are very personal so only the recipient of this beautiful present will fully understand the meaning of the message engraved. Now abbreviated text messages are the norm and people abbreviate and reduce words to the minimum, so you have to try to figure out what they are saying, but then there are others that reduce text messaging even further.

As an ardent fan of the older Hollywood films, Mr. K reminds me of another minimalist communicator the great Garry Cooper the late film star of the 1930s 40s 50s era.

Yeep, Nope --that was one of Cooper’s trademarks, not noted for saying long dialogues.

Mr. K and I normally go for a coffee and a bite to eat every week. We have a chat about work, catch up on things and just have a break from the office. I sent him a text last week asking if he wants to meet up the sometime this week. He answered by replying,

Tomorrow. U forgot today!!!

Well I had no idea what he was talking about and my head was already taxed with many challenges that I had to sort out that day, so I just asked him-what happened today? His reply was;

65

Well that told me nothing.

Is it your birthday today I asked? – I received No reply

Suspecting that this could be one option I checked out information I stored on my mobile against his details and yes that was it. It was his birthday that day and I forgot.

I am sure millions of us have been there when we realise that we forgot someone’s birthday that is important to us. It could be a family member; or a good or a close friend. It’s not a question of grovelling and saying “I am sorry”, but just feeling guilty as you know that you really didn’t want to forget so you are feeling bad. Plus there is always the added problem of what king of birthday gift do you give? Choosing an appropriate birthday present can be such a problem.

Well thank God that I have been in involved glass engraving for many years, because without that knowledge and experience I would never have thought of coming up with the idea of designing a personalised photo frame that has dedicated space to engrave messages in any language and that the website works in real time and upload photos so you can see what it looks like in the photo frame.

Mr. K is an ardent Manchester United fan. Many years ago I engraved a large circular crystal goblet with the words Manchester United engraved all the way around the glass plus something else was engraved ---something memorable that happened a few years ago at MU. I have kept that engraved crystal glass goblet for many years as I was sure that one day it will make a great present for someone and it would put a smile on someone’s face.

Well it certainly did make someone very happy as the following day it was the perfect birthday gift and a present well liked by Mr. K’s on his 65th birthday.